Before you jump on the great silver eagle, don’t forget WDFW is well known for projecting remarkable returns only to have them fail to materialize; or to have the recreational quota quickly met causing the sport fishery to be shut down very early in the season in deference to the Tribes and commercials. Prognostication has proven not to be WDFW’s strong suit.

I’ll remain cautiously optimistic, however, spend a few more hours at the tying bench this week, and try to get out in the South Sound at least 3 times a week for as long as the season lasts.

well, with the numbers and size of the silvers already being seen in the ocean, i for one believe the estimates wdfw is giving. the size of the fish is big for this time of year (makah trollers got a 15 lb. silver last week of may, and 16 lb. silver 1st week of june during the chinook troll fishery offshore). that combined with reports of 6-8 lb. fish in the northern waters of area 4A make me think that the opener will be fantastic and the fishing should hold up well into september with the larger quotas (in area 4 last year... july 3 through sept 30... 11,000 coho were harvested... and the quota this summer is 23,000 coho). we'll be catching tons of coho and leaving some quota behind imo. i'll be somewhere between umatilla and swiftsure july 1.